Almarin Cooley Richards

[Pamela]

He was known as A. C. Richards and during the time of the assassination he was was the Superintendent of the Washington Metropolitan Police. I read the 1980 article written by Gary R. Planck in the 1980 Lincoln Herald. In it, Planck raised several questions about Richard's truthfulness. One question, was A. C. Richards a witness to the Lincoln assassination as he claimed? After pages of dissecting numerous eyewitness accounts and delving into the matter of the police officer, John F. Parker who was Lincoln's bodyguard that night, Plank said this:

"On May 1, 1865, A.C. Richards served a charge and specification on John F. Parker. 'Neglect of duty,' it read. 'In this, that Said Parker was detailed to attend and protect the President Mr. Lincoln, that while the President was at Ford's Theatre on the night of the 14th of April last, Said Parker allowed a man to enter the President's private Box and shoot the President.' Two witnesses were listed: one was A. C. Richards himself and the other was Charles Forbes. Richards must have observed something in the theater that would support his charge, for if the information had been secured from someone else, that individual would have been summoned as a witness. Also, Richards must have known that Forbes had observed something that would further substantiate the charge."

So, Richards was in the theater during the assassination.